2004 Home Tour Sites click on images for high resolution All photos by
Denis Schmiedeke
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2004 Home Tour Sites click on images for high resolution All photos by
Denis Schmiedeke
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1124 Grant Street Julie & Donald Bromley Built in 1926, this Colonial Revival house was constructed as a model home. Its contractor, Allen Dieter, lived in the house until 1942. William Yeatman, a farmer and a gas station owner, became the house’s second owner. Yeatman’s partner, Matthew Stein, bought it in 1945 and his family lived there until 1975, when Bob and Shari Strauss purchased the house. 1124 Grant typifies 1920s housing construction, when pride of craftsmanship and serious interest in revival architecture prevailed. The Strausses collected primitive furniture and accessories and created a nineteenth-century interior. The walls were painted in dark colors and many featured stenciling. Dark plaid curtains hung at the windows. In January 2001 Don and Julie Bromley bought the house from a man who had owned it for only a year. They set about taking it back to its origins. The first order of business was updating the plumbing and electrical systems and redoing the wood floors. Today the house once again has a 1920s interior. The Bromleys have lightened every room and restored the bathrooms, with bead board, white tiles, and fixtures. The kitchen has undergone a similar transformation. In the dining room, a built-in cabinet, original to the house, has leaded glass doors. A sunroom on the east side was divided long ago into two rooms. The Bromleys’
furniture and accessories reflect the contemporary style found in catalogs
like Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel. Their home interestingly mixes
modern with the 1920s.
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203 North Washington Street Daniel & O’Bryan Worley The home at 203 North Washington is more than 100 years old. Today Daniel and O’Bryan Worley are working diligently to bring it back to its original nineteenth-century glory. The house’s eclectic and expressive characteristics are highly indicative of the Queen Anne style, popular in the 1880s and 1890s when the Industrial Revolution swept the country. As in this regal 1890 beauty, the exteriors of Queen Anne houses were often innovative and ornamental. Note the spindle work and other decorative details. Unfortunately these glorious details often proved difficult to maintain. For this reason, the Queen Anne style fell out of favor around the turn of the last century while smaller, more serious styles took center stage. This graceful charmer was eventually divided into separate units. During the conversion to apartments, walls were added and doors sealed or removed. A second kitchen was built upstairs and all of the utilities were separated to support two units. Despite these changes, much of the original character has been left intact. High ceilings abound throughout and beautiful woodwork graces most of the home. Beginning in August 2003, the Worleys began the daunting task of returning this house to a single-family dwelling. They launched the restoration process by freshening the house with paint, uncovering hidden gardens, and rebuilding the master suite. Next came a new kitchen, the culinary and social hub of the Worley home. Tourgoers will enjoy their glimpse of an energetic and creative family’s efforts to restore a downtown gem. |
114 North Normal Street Rachel Cuschieri-Murray and Bryant Murray Charles Neal Ellis, the owner of a local lumber business, built the Queen Anne house at 114 North Normal Street between the years 1885 and 1896. Ellis and his wife, Julia Chapman Ellis, raised their three daughters, Bessie, Bethlea, and Bertha, in the house. The house remained in the Ellis family, but had several tenants beginning in 1912. Don Nafe purchased the home in 1963 from Cora Ellis Wilber. He rented out the second floor to students, teachers, or families. Eventually members of his extended family lived on the second floor. Their help allowed him to live in the house until ten weeks before his death at age 103. The house had been vacant for two years when Rachel Cuschieri-Murray and Bryant Murray bought it in October 2002. Very much a work in progress, the house is under renovation. Wallpaper detectives Rachel and Bryant have been “piecing together“ its history based on the different wallpaper styles they’ve discovered in layers on their walls. A stunning new paint job has transformed the house’s formerly bland white exterior. Inside in the front room is the original woodburning stove. Also original are the floors and a wonderful cupboard that takes up an entire wall of the kitchen. The kitchen cupboard is Rachel’s favorite feature of the house. The Murrays have replaced the windows but kept the trim. They speculate that the upstairs may have been a maid’s quarters. Rachel and Bryant’s passion for bringing their nineteenth-century house back to life is a perfect example of what the annual Historic Home Tour in Ypsilanti is all about. |
209 Washtenaw Avenue First United Methodist Church In a small city with a wealth of beautiful old churches, the 1892 First United Methodist Church of Ypsilanti stands out. The light-filled sanctuary is lovely, with graceful wood pews, a prominent balcony encircling the space, and a backdrop of stunning stained glass windows. The Chicago firm of George Misch and Sons designed the windows. The commission specified that the designs must not include any figures. The only recognizable images are a cross and crown design on the main north window, an anchor on the transept window to the south, and a lily design that is repeated throughout the building. The abundance of stained glass, allowing so much light to flood the sanctuary, was unique in Washtenaw County at the time the church opened in 1892. In 2002 church trustees decided to repaint the sanctuary. The project proceeded under the guidance of church member and organist Ron Miller, who formulated a plan to replicate a version of the original paint scheme. The base color for the 2002 design was lightened to reflect current trends, but the accessory palate was based on the way the church was originally lit. Larry Burdick Painting Company of Ypsilanti did the base painting and Faux Play of Midland was hired to do the decorative painting. The original lighting was restored and new fixtures were installed to compliment the room. Today the church interior looks almost the same as it did when the first worshipers entered more than 100 years ago. The sanctuary has come back to life, with soaring arches, pillars topped with gold, and a major utilization of color to highlight an exceptional space. If you have never been inside the Methodist Church, or if you haven’t seen it since the sensitive 2002 restoration, be sure to stop by to gaze in delight at this local architectural and stained glass treasure. |
321 High Street Jill Dieterle When Jill Dieterle wakes up in the morning, she is in her grandparents’ bedroom. When she makes coffee, she makes it in her grandmother’s kitchen. And when she needs the good dishes, she takes them from the corner cupboard her grandfather made. Jill’s 1930s American vernacular cottage was built in 1939 by her grandparents Jake and Alice Dieterle. (Many sidewalks around town bear Jake Dieterle’s name or that of his brother, Fred, because their construction company poured the sidewalks at the houses they built.) Because Jake Dieterle was a finish carpenter, he did all the woodwork in the house, including the corner cupboard. Luckily the woodwork was never painted, and Jill was spared the truly awful job of stripping it. When Jake was badly injured in a fall from a roof and confined to bed for a long period, the sound of the frequent trains across the street became unbearable. In 1944 the house was sold and the Dieterles moved away. Other owners lived in the house for several years. In the 1950s Alice bought back the house she had loved. She lived there until her death in 1994, the same year that her granddaughter returned to Michigan to become a philosophy professor at EMU. Jill moved into her grandparents’ house. Jill removed the aluminum siding and had the house painted in its present lovely color scheme. Metal shutters have been replaced by the original wooden shutters that Jill found stored in the basement. Shoe molding had all been removed and it was also discovered in the basement. Putting all the pieces back into their original locations was a challenging jigsaw puzzle. Seventeen lilacs thriving at the back fence were a birthday gift to Jill from her dad to replace the originals that her grandfather had planted. Jill’s loving work has transformed this treasured house into a delightful and serene home. |
845 East Cross Street Kathy & Randy Fettes Randy and Kathy Fettes are decorative painters and the owners of Rand and Company Interiors. Naturally they like to practice their painting skills on their own house, so tourgoers interested in decorative painting won’t want to miss this stop on today’s tour. Kathy describes their home as a “wacky brick house.” The brickwork includes distinctive insets with stone, granite, and marble. Be sure to take a close look at the unusual exterior. The house was built in 1920, but no one seems to know much else about it. The Fetteses first rented the house in 1998, buying it three years later in 2001. The interior has an arts and crafts feel. Kathy describes their decorating style as “shabby chic—trash to treasure.” Of their taste, she says, “It’s us.” The house displays their real flair for putting together found or used furniture and decorative objects. They pick up “whatever really attracts us,” says Kathy, from flea markets, resale shops, off the curb, or at Apple Annie’s in Depot Town. They also frequent a resale shop in Northville called Consignment Interiors that is near the homes of many of their clients. And they purchase “seconds” at stores like Home Goods. Examples of Kathy and Randy’s treasures include a dining room table and sideboard by Paul McCobb (a Haywood Wakefield contemporary); a 100-yearold African Mossi lizard mask; four chrome, rosewood, and leather game chairs from a yacht; and an original 1970s Picasso lithograph poster. In preparation for the home tour, the Fetteses have had their front door rebuilt and their wood floors redone. Best of all, they’ve been lavishing their decorative painting expertise on all of their rooms. |
Updated 10/23/2004
